Ghana COVID-19 death toll exceeds 500 – GHS

Ghana’s COVID-19 death toll is now more than 500, after the country recorded eleven new deaths on Friday, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has announced.

The new deaths bring to a total of 505 from a previous 494 announced 24 hours ago.

The country’s active cases have also surged to 7,509 from a previous 6,938 announced in the last update following the confirmation of 790 new infections across the country.

The new infections were recorded in 10 regions from tests conducted as at February 08, 2021.

The regions were the Greater Accra, Western, Eastern, Ashanti, Central, Volta, Bono East, Bono, Oti and Upper West.

Two hundred and eighteen (218) more people have also recovered since the last update, bringing the total clinical recoveries and discharge to 66,333.

Currently, 109 of the active cases are in severe conditions, with 28 in critical condition.

These cases are being managed at treatment sites and isolation centres across the country, while some were under home management, the GHS said.

Ghana has so far recorded a total of 74,347 cases of the virus since its first confirmed two cases in March 2020.

Out of the total confirmed cases, 27,378 were from the General Surveillance; 45,804 from Enhanced Contact Tracing, while 1,165 were from international travellers disembarking at the Kotoka International Airport, since it was reopened on September 1, 2020, the GHS said.

A total of 822,643 tests have also been conducted, of which 254,056 were from routine surveillance, 410,909 from contact tracing, while 157,678 were from international travelers.

The positivity rate is 9.0 per cent.

Currently all 16 regions have an active case.

The Greater Accra Region remains the hotspot for the virus, accounting for more than 50 per cent (3,754) of active cases, with a cumulative case count of 43,497.

Ashanti Region has 1,353 active cases with a cumulative case of 13,361, followed by the Western Region with 641 active cases and cumulative case of 4,223.

Source: GNA